“Better-than-Libby’s” Pumpkin Pie (Sugar Free)

2 cups cooked pumpkin (use a “sugar pumpkin” from your garden, or the grocery store, or use one 15 oz can or half of the big 29 oz. can, which is about 1 3/4 cups—still works)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup honey

10 drops clear stevia

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 can evaporate milk (12 oz) which is 1 1/2 cups

Beat eggs, add other ingredients, mixing well. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 325 degrees for an 45-60 minutes. Check by inserting a knife into the center of the pie. It is comes out clean, it is done. Serve with sugar-free ice cream!

This recipe is for a 2 quart ice cream maker:

Vanilla Walnut Ice Cream

4 cups whole milk

2/3 cup whole yogurt

2 T. xylitol or honey

1 squirt clear stevia

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix all ingredients, except nuts, together in a bowl, and pour in ice cream maker, adding more milk until reaching 2″ below top of ice cream maker. Taste near the end of churning and add more sweetener if needed to taste. Churn until frozen, about 20 minutes, adding nuts near the end of churning.

Louisa and I have been experimenting, which means pudding for Daddy every day. Not a bad life!

So, we tried making Butterscotch Pudding. When you heat sugar, it browns and caramelizes creating a butterscotch taste. So, that is missing when you don’t use sugar. But we tried anyway to make butterscotch, and ended up making some awesome Pecan Praline Pudding! Light in color and taste, but definitely sweet and yummy!

In a bowl, mix cornstarch, salt and dry milk powder if you are using it. (You’ll need 6 tablespoons of non-instant dry milk powder or 8 tablespoons of instant dry milk powder to make the 2 cups of milk needed. Mixing the dry non-instant milk powder with the cornstarch helps it not clump up). Whisk to blend. Add the milk (or scant 2 cups water, if using dry milk) and whisk until smooth.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add xylitol and cook over low heat until butter browns. Stir in molasses. Taste and add stevia to desired sweetness, 10-20 drops.

Add milk mixture to the saucepan and whisk, cooking over medium heat until pudding boils. Boil, stirring constantly, for one minute. Gradually pour half of the pudding mixture into the beaten eggs, whisking continually. Then pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan gradually, whisking continually. Cook and boil for one more minute.

Pour into pudding dishes and top generously with chopped pecans. Serves 4.

“Thin Mint” Pudding, Sugar Free

An alternative way to make a fresh mint taste is to put a few springs of mint from your garden into the blender with scant 2 cups of water. Blend well and pour through strainer. Use this water in the recipe in place of milk if using dry milk powder. If you are using liquid milk, rather than dry milk, put the mint into the blender with 2 cups of milk, strain, and use this “minty” milk for the milk in the recipe.

In mid-July, my 15-year-old daughter Louisa and I celebrated our anniversary—we’ve been sugar-free for two whole years! Yay! When someone served a chocolate cream pie today, she and I looked at each other and said, “we have to figure that out!” and we promptly headed for the kitchen. Here’s what we came up with!

Put all the dry ingredients into a saucepan, including dry milk powder if you are using it. Whisk to mix well. Add milk (or water). Stir over medium heat. Taste mixture, and add 10 or more drops stevia if more sweetening is needed.

Keep whisking and bring to a boil, bubbling for one minute. Slowly pour pudding mixture into the egg yolks, whisking egg yolks as you pour. After you have added 1/2 of the pudding to the egg yolks, then pour it back into the saucepan, whisking as you pour. Boil for one more minute, stirring constantly. If you are using non-fat dry milk powder, add butter if desired for a richer taste. Stir in vanilla.

Pour into dessert dishes. Top with chopped walnuts. Serves 4.

*To use arrowroot in place of cornstarch:
Substitute 4 teaspoons of arrowroot for the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the recipe. Do not boil, but remove from heat as soon as it thickens.

In spite of being sugar-free—and trying to use fresh fruit for the sweets in my diet—there are moments when a brownie is just right. This one has lots of wholesome ingredients in it. Next time, I am going to try adding flaxseed too. Sweet and chocolately!

Combine all ingredients together, kneading with your hands to mix. It will seem quite dry. Pat into one huge cookie on a baking pan. Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes until set and firm on the edges. Let cool. Satisfies 4-6 sweet-tooth cookie monsters!

My daughter Louisa (14) and I have been sugar-free for a year and a half now. And guess what I miss most? Yep, ice cream! I’ve tried the artificially sweetened (or should I say “poisoned”?) ice creams, and although I’m thrilled to have ice cream in most any form, it comes at a high price: usually pain—in the form of earaches, digestive ouches, etc. It feels pretty obvious to my body that Splenda, and other sugar substitutes aren’t healthy.

So, in the quest for healthy ice cream, here’s what we came up with. This dessert is fresh, healthy, sugar-free and yum!

Instead of Ice Cream

Mix ingredients together. If adding firm fruit like mangoes or peaches, use a blender to fully mix it in. Reserve some small pieces of fruit to add near the end of freezing if you want it chunky. If using berries, just pour them in, and they will get mashed in during the churning process.

Now taste your mixture and add liquid stevia until it tastes sweet. Pour into a 2 quart ice cream freezer and churn until frozen (about 25 minutes). Eat right away or scoop into a plastic container to store in the freezer. Take it out about 10 minutes before serving so it can soften and be scooped.

The “ice cream” in the photo was made by adding 1/2 of a 16 oz. package of frozen raspberries to the yogurt-milk-stevia mixture. The churning mashed it all up and made it a pretty pink color! I reserved the other half of the bag of raspberries to sprinkle on top. We also topped it with salted peanuts and the salty/sweet combination was tasty!